[dropcap size=big]F[/dropcap]or printmaker-turned-pretzel-panadero Jesse “Chuy” Reyes, baking was nowhere near one of his main goals. As he admittedly told me over the phone, he used to hate it.
“The irony is that I used to hate baking. I really love to cook because I can freestyle with ingredients and kind of play around. I ruined so many batches of dough in the beginning because I wouldn't pay attention to the directions.” With his first introduction to baking being an awkward pineapple upside-down Cake, which his Nana taught him, Jesse spent most of his time in the Eastside San Fernando Valley making beats, graffiti, art, and listening to Hip Hop music.
A long-distance relationship later landed him in San Francisco, where he eventually moved in with a now ex-boyfriend. “I came up for a visit in like 2006 and made it my mission to live there....basically I begged him to let me move in with him. It was funny. I ended up telling my [grandma], ‘Hey nana, you know I’ve been going up to San Francisco all those times...I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I’m seeing someone up there.’” To which she funnily replied, “Oh, thank god, I thought you were selling drugs from the Greyhound!” With a new base of operations to call home, he immersed himself in printmaking and painting with intentions to go to art school. Inspiration can come from many places, including television shows, but more specifically, Alton Brown’s “Good Eats.”
“Alton Brown! I had this Good Eats phase, where I watched all the episodes. My partner at the time really liked pretzels, and I had zero experience making them but wanted to show off for him.” Mimicking and practicing on multiple recipes he would get from the show. He always kept the idea of pretzels in the back of his mind. He immediately connected baking to his artistic practices of printmaking, having to be exact with your measurements and temperatures, patience, and more importantly, the attention to detail.